Good news, you can edit your PDFs right from your browser! But which tools are the best for the job?
Most file types are easy to edit. Just throw them into one of the countless editing programs that come with practically every computer ever made, and just mess with settings until you get the desired outcome. PDFs, however, are a bit different.
To help you swim through the countless plugins dedicated to PDFs, we’ve compiled a list of nine essential add-ons that will allow you to edit PDFs easily right from your browser.
Extensions Recommended for PDF Editing in Chrome
It’s practically dizzying to try and swim through every PDF editor available for Chrome. So, rather than trying to take a trial and error approach and download every single last one, let us do the work for you.
We’ve narrowed down the extensive options to a list of nine. Here are our picks to take a look at:
- Kami: Add comments, erase/add drawings, and share PDFs
- Yawas: Highlight and leave comments on PDFs and web pages with ease
- Xodo PDF Viewer and Editor: Edit, annotate, and share/collaborate on documents
- Smallpdf: Easy-to-use plugin for converting, merging, compressing, and editing PDFs
- Hypothesis: Allows you to edit PDFs and web pages alike from your browser
- Sejda PDF Editor: Free editor for splitting and merging your PDFs, or converting and editing them directly from your browser
- Soda PDF: Open, merge, and download PDF files from your browser
- Smart PDF: Convert PDFs to images, and edit them from your browser
- Merge PDF: Great for dividing and merging your PDF files
List of the Top 9 PDF Chrome Extensions
Now that you’ve seen our list, here’s a closer look at each of our top nine extensions.
Kami
Kami main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: A massive toolset to annotate, edit, and transform PDFs, images, and other documents.
Kami pros & cons
Pros
- Massive selection of useful tools
- Allows the editing of countless types of documents all from your browser
- Extension is completely free to use
- Runs perfectly
Cons
- Fairly cluttered interface
- Has a fairly steep learning curve to start with
Kami is an ambitious extension that allows for the editing of PDFs, images, and all manner of files. It’s a complete workspace that grants you the ability to edit your documents with annotations, comments, marks, complete edits of text and images, drawing, fill out forms, and more.
While Kami is technically designed to be an educational workflow for editing student documents, it works perfectly as a tool for editing PDFs of any kind. It’s one of the most abundant tool kits we’ve seen from an extension, practically standing toe-to-toe with Adobe’s official PDF-editing software itself in terms of what you’re able to accomplish with it.
You can download the Kami extension for the Chrome browser here.
Yawas
Yawas main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 3.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome and Firefox
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Highlight and annotate web pages and PDFs
Yawas pros & cons
Pros
- Extremely easy to use
- Saves highlights for all following visits
- Offers quick keyboard shortcuts
Cons
- If you log out of Google, you can’t see your highlights
While bookmarking and saving web pages are already very convenient as is, what happens when you only care about saving one small part of a massive text-walled site? Just a small snippet of information that you don’t want to have to swim through an entire page of hundreds of words to find. Perhaps something a bit more would be handy.
With Yawas, you gain the ability to create highlights and annotations on any web page online. However, that’s not its only useful feature. All of these annotation tools can be used for PDFs as well, allowing you to easily mark, comment, or highlight any PDF from your browser. And if that weren’t easy enough, you can even bind shortcuts for every tool in order to annotate and highlight anything with a simple button press.
You can download the Yawas extension for the Chrome browser here.
Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor
Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 3/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Large toolkit for reading, editing, and annotating PDF files
Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor pros & cons
Pros
- Clean, easy interface
- Edit, merge, mark, annotate, fill out, and write PDFs in any way you want
- All-in-one tool with features from plenty of other readers and editors
- Google Drive support.
Cons
- Known to be buggy with Chromebook
Here’s one of those “all-in-one” extensions that we love to see. Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor is a Google Chrome plugin that allows you to read, edit, annotate, and do all sorts of things with your PDF files, all from the convenience of your browser. The best part, of course, is that all of its tools are completely free.
Unfortunately, the extension is known to be highly buggy with Chromebook computers, so caution is advised. But other than that, Xodo is an excellent set of tools for editing, customizing, and filling out any PDF you wish with ease.
You can download the Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor extension for the Chrome browser here.
Smallpdf
Smallpdf main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: A simple way to edit, convert, and compress PDF files with ease
Smallpdf pros & cons
Pros
- Extremely easy to use
- Tools to edit, merge, split, extract, and compress
- Protect, unlock, sign, and send PDFs
- Integrated with Gmail support
Cons
- Frequent pop-ups reminding you to buy the full version
There are extensions that offer a large variety of different tools, and then there are those that go above and beyond. Smallpdf, despite its name, is no small plugin at all. Why settle for separate plugins for editing, annotating, filling, and transforming your PDF when you can have it all in a single extension?
Smallpdf is the perfect solution for resizing, reformatting, and editing every single part of your PDF files. With an incredibly easy-to-use interface, Smallpdf makes it simple to do everything you’d need to get done with your PDF files, all in a neat package where every feature and button are within arm’s reach.
You can download the Smallpdf extension for the Chrome browser here.
Hypothesis
Hypothesis main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Annotate web pages and PDF files alike with ease
Hypothesis pros & cons
Pros
- Easy to use
- Remembers all annotations previously made on sites you’ve visited
- Completely free
- Can collaborate and share annotations with others
Cons
- No way to have it enabled by default for new tabs
Hypothesis shares many similarities to Yawas, another annotation extension on this list. However, what Hypothesis offers that Yawas lacks is the ability to share and collaborate on your annotations with groups or even search through your annotations and notes. Overall, Hypothesis seems to deliver a few extra features that Yawas simply lacks.
This is why we personally prefer Hypothesis. It runs a bit smoother and can deliver just about everything that Yawas has up its sleeve. While the final choice is, of course, up to preference, the reviews seem to reflect this. With a near-perfect score, Hypothesis seems to give a rather pleasant experience to most of its users.
You can download the Hypothesis extension for the Chrome browser here.
Sejda PDF Editor
Sejda PDF Editor main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Edit, add text, add images, whiteout, highlight, compress, and merge PDF files
Sejda PDF Editor pros & cons
Pros
- A massive set of tools
- Easy to use in-browser interface
- Works with Google Drive
- Allows you to convert HTML to PDF
Cons
- Lacks a useful undo button
At this point, it may seem like we’re practically trying to fill this list with different flavors of “all-in-one” tool kit plugins but trust us. They can be some of the most useful extensions to have when it comes to PDF editing. On top of that, Sejda is one of the highest quality and handiest ones out there.
It shares plenty of similarities with plugins like Smallpdf and Xodo, but it's not just another alternative. Sejda also has a great feature that allows you to turn HTML pages into PDF files, an extremely useful feature for saving an offline copy of a web page. On top of that, it also has all the essentials: editing, writing, adding text and images, filling forms, highlighting, converting, splitting, merging, etc.
You can download the Sejda PDF Editor extension for the Chrome browser here.
Soda PDF
Soda PDF main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 4/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: A straightforward extension for merging PDF files from your browser
Soda PDF pros & cons
Pros
- Extremely easy to use
- Merge files quickly from your browser
- Read and download edited PDFs
Cons
- Relatively limited features compared to other extensions
Soda PDF is definitely one of the more simplistic extensions on our list. However, with raving reviews, at least you can rest assured knowing it does what it is supposed to do, and it does it well. Soda PDF is a simple plugin for merging PDF files into one and being able to read and download them all from your browser.
It doesn’t seem to suffer from any bugs or anything of the sort. It’s stable, reliable, and is about the easiest solution you’ll find if you’re looking for a quick way to put multiple PDFs together and download them. It also lets you split, compress, and unlock/protect your PDF files easily, as well as converting Word documents to PDF.
You can download the Soda PDF extension for the Chrome browser here.
Smart PDF
Smart PDF main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or image files, and vice versa
Smart PDF pros & cons
Pros
- Choose from a wide range of formats
- Works with Google Drive
- Converts quickly
- Extremely easy to use
Cons
- No editing features
Moving away from “all-in-one” extensions, Smart PDF is a plugin designed for one purpose and one purpose only: conversion. Smart PDF is a simple but powerful tool that allows you to convert PDF to Word, Excel, PPT, or JPG files, or the other way around. All you need to do is simply select a converting option from its menu. It’s as easy as that.
Smart PDF is probably the easiest extension on this list to use. You could likely add the extension to your browser and start converting PDFs within the same minute. If the other plugins on this list have seemed a little too complicated or had too many unnecessary features for your taste, this one should give a much more focused function that is effortless to use.
You can download the Smart PDF extension for the Chrome browser here.
Merge PDF
Merge PDF main features & specifications summary
- Rating: 3.5/5
- Browser compatibility: Chrome
- Pricing: Free
- Feature: Easy way to merge files into a single PDF
Merge PDF pros & cons
Pros
- Unlimited file merging
- Reorder pages of a PDF
- Easy to use drag-and-drop feature
Cons
- Has a paywall after recurring uses
The last spot on our list belonds to Merge PDF, a simple plugin that allows you to merge multiple files into a single PDF. Like Smart PDF, it has some converting capabilities of similar file types, but with the added function of being able to merge multiple of these files into a single master PDF rather than multiple smaller ones.
It’s extremely easy to use, with a rather pleasant interface. However, if you’re planning on using it frequently, consider finding another extension with a similar function. This plugin will hit you with a paywall if you use it often, making you wait a day before merging files with it again in order to keep using it for free.
You can download the Merge PDF extension for the Chrome browser here.
Frequently Asked Questions About PDF Extensions For Google Chrome
Do I Have to Pay to Use These Extensions?
No, most Google Chrome extensions are free to use. Aside from Merge PDF, all extensions on this list have all of their functions completely free.
What Is the Best PDF Editor Extension for Google Chrome?
While this is an entirely subjective question, we personally recommend Smallpdf for all your editing needs. It’s extremely high quality, has all of the tools you might need, and has a friendly, simple interface to work with.
Do I Need to be Online for These Extensions to Work?
Most Google Chrome extensions require an online connection to function unless specifically stated otherwise. All of the extensions on this list require an internet connection to work.
Do These Plugins Work Anywhere in the World?
Most PDF editing extensions have no issues with geographical differences, and from what we were able to tell, all of the plugins on this list should have no issues regardless of where you are in the world.
Why Are Plugins on this List with Lower Ratings?
We’ve included PDF editors on this list with ratings lower than 5 and 4 stars because we found functionality in them even if they weren’t as polished or high quality as users found other extensions to be.
Bottom line
These were some of the best PDF reading, editing, and conversion plugins that we could find for Google Chrome. With the options on this list, you should have any of your PDF needs taken care of! Have your pick of these great plugins and edit your PDFs to your heart’s content.
If any of these plugins were useful to you, let us know! Tell us which extensions caught your eye and how you’re using them to edit your PDF files.
Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Want to edit a PDF online? Here's a list of the best 9 PDF Extensions for Chrome appeared first on gHacks Technology News.
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